Stubblefield deserves call to College Football Hall of Fame

The statistics don't lie.

Just look at them. They glisten for former star Purdue wideout Taylor Stubblefield.

• 325 catches

• 3,629 yards

• 21 touchdowns

• 11, 100-yard receiving games

When he left Purdue after the 2004 season, Stubblefield was the NCAA all-time leader in receptions. That, alone, merits inclusion alongside the greats of the game.

The National Football Foundation recently released its ballot for 2023. And Stubblefield is on it. The time is now to honor Stubblefield as the next Purdue player enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. What's the delay? The 2023 class will be announced in early 2023.

“It would mean a lot,” Stubblefield told GoldandBlack.com. “For a small town kid who redshirted, it would mean a lot. And for Purdue, that era of Joe Tiller football, I think that it was underappreciated, especially at the tail end of his career. That Joe Tiller football was really revolutionary for the game of football, but also the Big Ten.”

Stubblefield was a big part of that revolution. The not-overly-big and not-overly-fast kid from far-flung Yakima, Wash., thrived in Tiller's zany “basketball on grass” attack that left Big Ten defensive coordinators flummoxed. Just like that, Tiller turned perennial losing Purdue into a program that mattered upon arrival in 1997.

By the time Stubblefield unpacked his bags in West Lafayette in the fall of 2000, the program was thriving. And he kept if going en route to becoming the most prolific wideout in school annals and a Big Ten all-time great.

“His ability to stop on a dime was what stood out,” said Greg Olson, a former Boilermaker assistant who now is on the Los Angeles Rams staff. “He's not gonna wow you with his size or speed, but there are certain things that those guys can do that other guys can't do. What he could do so well in college was run that choice route or that option route, starting-stopping on a dime. That was really the most unique thing about it.”

Olson saw something in the 6-0, 180-pound Stubblefield. Like Stubblefield, Olson was from eastern Washington. And he got a tip from a player he had coached at Central Washington--and his brother who coached against Stubblefield--about this "kid you have to check out."

“He sent a video highlight tape, and that video really kind of sold us,” said Olson. “We really liked him, but then that kind of was icing on the cake, seeing him dunking a basketball and really showing some excellent vertical jump ability. Good kid, good student. Joe kind of fell in love with him.”

Stubbleifield never even took an official visit, committing and signing with Purdue sight unseen. He redshirted in 2000. And by the time he left West Lafayette, Stubblefield was an all-time great on four consecutive bowl teams. He led the Big Ten in catches his final three seasons and was consensus All-American in 2004. That season, Stubblefield made 89 catches for 1,095 yards and set a school standard that endures: 16 receiving touchdowns.

“He's one of the most instinctive players you'll ever find,” said Jim Chaney, who was Purdue’s offensive coordinator and is now an analyst for Georgia Tech. “He had a knack of getting open against people quite honestly who were more talented than him. But he found a way to win, catch the ball and get open. He was just a good football player that way. Above all else, he just represents college football the way it used to be, and it should be."

Stubblefield never caught fewer than 73 passes in a season. And he caught at least one pass in all 47 games he played at Purdue.

Want more? Stubblefield is part of one of the most iconic plays in school history, jetting 97 yards while triumphantly pumping a raised fist along the way to pay dirt in a 41-16 win at Notre Dame on Oct. 2, 2004. It was the Boilermakers’ first victory in South Bend since 1974. Stubblefield caught seven passes for 181 yards on one of the most glorious days in Purdue football history.

"It was supposed to be a run play," recalled Stubblefield. "Their defensive backs had talked a whole bunch of stuff going into that game, about how they were going to play man-to-man because they were gonna lock down the receivers. We took that as a huge challenge.

"They brought what looked like cover zero. And Kyle (Orton) looked at me, we checked it, and I ran a go-route. The dude falls at like the 40-yard line and then things slowed down. I was just so excited. I started pumping my arm and it looked like I was going choo-choo (like pulling a train whistle), but I really wasn't. I was just so excited."

After a cup-of-coffee pro experience, the 40-year-old Stubblefield has forged a career as a receivers coach, working at Penn State since 2020 with prior stops at Miami (Fla.), Air Force, Utah and Wake Forest, among other schools.

"I couldn't be more proud of him, getting out and coaching and doing everything he's done with it," said Chaney. "He's been very successful. That's kind of who he is. No one ever doubted that he was going to be successful.

"He and Kyle working together, I just enjoyed those two guys so much. They were something to deal with. They were smart asses and I liked that quality in both of them."

Added Olson: “I am pretty biased. But to put up those kind of numbers … I think it put Purdue on the map those years. Obviously, Drew Brees was big. But there were a number of players there that got Purdue going again, NFL players. But, as far as the production that he had in college, it's pretty impressive.”

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